Upon entering the forbidden ground, Wu Xingxue wanted to open his mouth to speak, only to be choked by the intense smell of smoke. He had to cough so badly that a thin flush rose to both his neck and cheeks.
The next moment, someone crossed before him to block the gust of smoke for him. His coughing then slowly subsided.
Wu Xingxue lifted his gaze. It was indeed Xiao Fuxuan.
The Tianxiu Immortal also had smoke on his body. He reckoned that he’d been immersed in this forbidden ground, and was sullied by it. As the wind swept past his robe, it was also quite cough-inducing.
But Wu Xingxue didn’t make a peep.
He just slightly squinted his eyes and stifled back the urge to cough, stifled it so much that his eyes got hot; they’d likely gone red.
“The wind here is full of smoke, and death traps are myriad. You shouldn’t—” Xiao Fuxuan glanced at the area behind him, then turned his head back, pausing in his words.
Being looked at by him, Wu Xingxue was a bit confused: “What’s wrong?”
Xiao Fuxuan controlled his gaze: “…Nothing.”
Wu Xingxue: “?”
Wu Xingxue: “I shouldn’t what?”
Xiao Fuxuan: “Nothing.”
The devil was a bit befuddled. But he guessed that the Tianxiu Immortal was most likely about to say “you shouldn’t be here now.” Thus, he couldn’t help but start to justify himself: “I wasn’t just recklessly charging in. You weren’t at the inn so you didn’t see that innkeeper’s genial hospitality or his grand, baffle-ready gestures.
Xiao Fuxuan looked over: “What battle-ready gestures?”
The devil thought it over, and began his barefaced litany: “He had a corpse that’d been soaked for I don’t know how long. Deep at night, it got restless and squatted next to my bed. To wake up in the middle of the night and turn my head to see that thing, it really scared me out of my wits.”
Xiao Fuxuan: “……”
The Tianxiu Immortal’s expression started to get a bit complicated. He moved his lips, but under the spell of the devil’s eyes, wasn’t quite willing to open his mouth, and instead goaded him on: “And then?”
Quite pleased, the devil continued: “And then there was just a little conflict, which attracted people from the Feng Sect. They presented me with a fistful of ashes when they came, and said it was a devil-probing talisman. What an awful mess it was, got all over my body—”
His words carried a measure of grievance. He lowered his head to brush at his clothes, and indeed brushed off a bit of remaining ash.
Fingertips stained with a bit of ash, he stretched them out: °Look.”
The Tianxiu Immortal peeped at his fingertips. After a long beat, he let out an “Mn,” expressing that he saw it.
The devil’s body wasn’t hurt in the slightest, not even his skin was ruptured, so it was naturally impossible that he’d suffered any assault in this altercation. Xiao Fuxuan evidently knew this, but he just couldn’t resist those eyes looking at him.
After a moment’s silence, he still asked: “Did you raise a hand?”‘
Wu Xingxue replied: “They raised their swords.”
Xiao Fuxuan: “……”
At this point in the conversation, the devil was perhaps aware he’d been a bit excessive, and promptly changed the subject to say: °Luckily, it wasn’t too noisy, and once they listened to my explanation they stopped braying for blood and changed their minds to help me search for you instead.”
Hearing this, Xiao Fuxuan’s gaze shifted.
After a moment, he asked: “How long were you searching?”
Perhaps because the forbidden ground’s smoky air had scorched his breath, his voice seemed less cold, even exhibiting a measure of warmth.
Wu Xingxue was taken aback by it and felt his heart move.
Strangely enough, that wisp of longing he’d previously pushed down made an inexplicable resurgence. It didn’t make a lick of sense; clearly, the person he’d been searching for all night was already standing right before him.
“Mm?” Wu Xingxue answered lightly: “Not actually very long. It was just that the entrance to this forbidden ground was really easy to miss, and the innkeeper seemed to have been under a mouth-sealing spell, so it took a while to get anything useful out of him. And, those Feng Sect people’s abilities were also limited. Getting them to make a hole for me, they hesitated forever without doing it, just holding up time for the hell of—”
As he spoke, he suddenly stopped.
Because when he looked up, he saw that Xiao Fuxuan had been looking at him the entire time.
Wu Xingxue was just about to say “What’s wrong?” when he saw Xiao Fuxuan abruptly lifting a hand and crooking a finger to stroke lightly below the corner of his eye.
Wu Xingxue was momentarily rendered silent.
He was just getting on his calamity period, his whole body cold as ice. When the other’s finger neared dose, that wisp of warmth was especially distinct, that even after a while, the tail of his eye still felt hot.
Perhaps that brief tactile sensation was too familiar—he recalled a snippet of a scene. It seemed that the closer he got to Luohua Terrace, the more often he recalled the past.
In the scene that flitted vaguely by, he saw the “Mian” symbol on Xiao Fuxuan’s neck from up close, gleaming from the bottom up like a flickering golden flame.
He’d squinted his eyes in that gleam, then felt a light touch below the corner of his eye.
He’d watched Xiao Fuxuan rubbing his bent fingers and whispering: “It’s wet.”
……
Wu Xingxue’s eyelashes trembled.
He subconsciously felt it in the corner of his eye, feeling the lingering warmth of Xiao Fuxuan’s finger. He promptly became much calmer, like a snow fox whose fur had been petted.
He put up a light struggle, asking: “Was that just for the ash from the Feng Sect on my eye?”
Xiao Fuxuan mumbled in doubt; after a beat, he opened his mouth to say: “No.”
No?
Then why did you…
Wu Xingxue looked at him.
Another long moment passed before Xiao Fuxuan’s voice sounded with warm, smoky depth: “Your disguise had disappeared in that spot; I fixed it.”
Wu Xingxue’s eyes flashed.
***
The smoky wind behind Xiao Fuxuan died down a bit. As his gaze shifted, he saw scorched earth cover as far as the horizon.
Wu Xingxue knit his brows, asking: “Why is this entire place scorched earth?”
Xiao Fuxuan turned to look: “…Don’t know, it was like this when I arrived.”
The burnt smell was truly heavy. Wu Xingxue was somewhat puzzled, and mumbled: “Really?”
“Yes.”
Wu Xingxue had no doubts in him, and went on to ask: “Oh right, why did you come to this forbidden ground in the first place?”
Xiao Fuxuan replied: “In the middle of the night, I heard a voice.”
Confused, Wu Xingxue asked, “What voice?”
Xiao Fuxuan: “…Your voice.”
Wu Xingxue: “?”
“My voice?” Wu Xingxue felt even more baffled, “Where did it come from, and what did it say?”
Xiao Fuxuan replied: “In the courtyard. It didn’t say anything other than calling my name.”
Just when the night was deepest, although that call of “Xiao Fuxuan” was very soft, it was incredibly clear; there was no way he could have mistaken it.
At first, he thought the person curled up on the bed was too cold, and thus called for him. He’d even stooped down to check the other’s temperature. But after that, he heard it again.
He then thought that it was the divine statue in the brocade sachet at his waist.
It wasn’t until he heard it a third time that he recognized that the voice was coming from the courtyard.
Normally, with the genuine Wu Xingxue lying on the bed, there was no way he’d be drawn away by a single voice; he’d just sweep a sword wind over.
But in this Falling Flower Mountain Market illusion realm, he was somewhat hesitant—because there wasn’t just the current Wu Xingxue in the mountain market, but possibly also the Wu Xingxue from back then.
He couldn’t rashly unleash his sword.
Hence, he walked over to the window, pricked the window open a crack, and looked in the direction of the voice. The area was totally dark, and he couldn’t see any figures there.
Because it couldn’t be considered far, Xiao Fuxuan didn’t use Separation of Spiritual Consciousness, but just let out a wisp of spiritual consciousness from his fingertips, wanting to go scout out the courtyard.
The voice had come from a corner of the courtyard’s wall. The moment that wisp of spiritual consciousness touched the corner, he felt a cosmic wind lifting the flat ground and wrapping his entire person in its gust.
By the time he struck open the cosmic wind, he was already standing in this place.
“Well that truly is strange.’ Wu Xingxue said, “There were clearly two people in the room, so why did it only drag you in? Don’t tell me this forbidden ground can even recognize people?”
Even if it did recognize people, shouldn’t it have recognized him and not Xiao Fuxuan?
After all, back then he’d said that he was born here. When it came to the shared origin, his ought to have been somewhat deeper.
Wu Xingxue mulled it back and forth, and could come to just one conclusion—it wasn’t that Xiao Fuxuan had been dragged into this forbidden ground by the place itself, but that someone had been meddling around here, and wanted to drag Xiao Fuxuan into the forbidden ground.
If it was like this, then it provided some food for thought…
How many people in this world could there be who could pull methods such as this on the Tianxiu Immortal?
Wu Xingxue was working it over in his mind when he heard Xiao Fuxuan say: “You were just saying that this is forbidden ground? But what did you hear?”
Wu Xingxue was dazed for a moment, wanting to say: “You don’t know?”
But when he turned it over, Xiao Fuxuan hadn’t heard any of the words the innkeeper had said. And, that “there was once a divine arbor in Falling Flower Terrace” from back then at Seat of the Spring Breeze was also a conversation from centuries ago; someone who’d heard it wouldn’t necessarily remember. And even if he remembered, he wouldn’t necessarily think it was this place.
And moreover…
Wu Xingxue looked out in the distance, but couldn’t get a glimpse of even a tree branch on the scorched earth. Were it not for him just having recalled that conversation at Seated Spring Breeze he also wouldn’t have thought that this was the place sealing off the divine arbor.
Besides, he’d said it was sealed off, but he didn’t see any sealing techniques. Apart from the suffocating smoke, the scorched earth could practically be called calm.
“When you came in, was this place really such a dead still?” Wu Xingxue asked.
Xiao Fuxuan grunted in affirmation.
Wu Xingxue again asked: “You didn’t trip any arrays or anything?
Xiao Fuxuan: “No.”
Wu Xingxue thought to himself that it really was strange. He recalled that “death traps are myriad” Xiao Fuxuan had mentioned before. Puzzled, he said: “Then what about those death traps you mentioned?”
Xiao Fuxuan seemed to choke slightly, then replied dully: “That was to scare you.”
Wu Xingxue: “?”
“Seeing as you’ve already entered…” Xiao Fuxuan seemed to have a bit of a headache: “I’ve nothing more to say.”
Wu Xingxue peered through the smoky wind toward an indistinct silhouette far off in the distance.
He narrowed his eyes and patted Xiao Fuxuan: “Over there… is there a house?”
Xiao Fuxuan: “It ought to be a temple. I was about to go over and take a look at first.”
Wu Xingxue: “And then what happened?”
Xiao Fuxuan: “…And then I faintly heard a certain someone outside saying ‘If I can’t open up a hole, then I’ll do something noisy.’”
The certain someone: “…”
Wu Xingxue was speechless for a moment, then raised a hand to push Xiao Fuxuan forward a step: “Let’s go let’s go, I’ll stop talking.”
***
They passed through that strange expanse of utterly vacant scorched earth, and walked toward the shadow in front.
Xiao Fuxuan was right; it was indeed a temple, just weirdly jutting solitarily out within the scorched earth. The temple had a wooden facade of deep crow-black, while inside, the niche and floor were of white jade.
Upon the niche’s platform was a little carven statue, also of white jade. Different from commonly-seen divine statues, it lacked a certain stately and solemn, detached compassion. Its subject was a youth reclining against an extremely tall jade tree.
The statue was carved without a face, so one couldn’t tell what the youth looked like, only that his figure was actually rather lanky—tall and straight. There was a stele behind the carving, upon which were carved words, the very top of which must have been the youth’s taboo name.
Somewhat strange, he was called: General Bai.
Wu Xingxue was just about to take the jade stele to read when he suddenly heard a faint voice saying: “Don’t touch it, you’ll die…”
Wu Xingxue’s fingers halted.
The voice’s emergence was odd. He scanned all around without finding where it had come from. Xiao Fuxuan propped the altar’s tablecloth with his sword, but apart from a large pot full of incense ashes, no one was hiding under the platform.
Wu Xingxue pondered for a moment, then suddenly thought something was off.
The voice didn’t seem to have come from the surroundings, but from…
Overhead.
Frowning, he lifted his head to look up.
On the lofty roof beams of the temple was a densely packed array of human faces… It seemed like the entire roof was suspended full of people hanging by their feet with their heads drooping down—just hanging there above them.
Wu Xingxue: “……”
Thinking it over, given this scene, he could get away with clinging to the Tianxiu Immortal’s robe.
The human faces were truly too numerous—male and female, old and young all—each with a deathly pale face They lightly swayed in the wind, and the rope suspending them even made a slight creeeak-creeeeaking sound.
For a time he couldn’t distinguish which face had ultimately said “don’t touch it, you’ll die.”
He and Xiao Fuxuan looked up with brows furrowed.
Just as they were searching, that voice again faintly sounded: “That this sealed forbidden ground, interleaved with layer upon layer of blade arrays, fire arrays, eighty-one bolts of the Ninth Heaven’s mystic lightning, could actually be broken dean with such speed…”
Wu Xingxue: “?”
He was taken aback: “Blade arrays, fire arrays, Ninth Heaven’s mystic lightning? Where?”
That voice again said: “He already broke them. We all saw it.”
It took Wu Xingxue a hot second to react before he understood who that “he” the voice spoke of was.
Open-mouthed, he then turned to look at Xiao Fuxuan.
“Didn’t you…” Wu Xingxue asked lightly: “Didn’t you say, that when you came in, this sealed forbidden ground has been a dead still?”
Xiao Fuxuan: “……”
“You said this place didn’t have any arrays, and you hadn’t seen anything at all?”
“And you said that there are death traps here just to scare me.”=
The close-packed voices overhead began to snort. One after another, those human faces opened their maws to speak in gossamer-thin voices: “Lies.”
“Lies.”
“Those were lies!.”
……
He had indeed lied.
Upon arrival, this forbidden ground had mountains of blades and seas of fire, packed so dose they gave naught the opportunity for air. Were anyone a slight bit weaker to enter this place, unless they had a human barrier for protection, they simply wouldn’t have had a chance in hell.
To the extent that even Xiao Fuxuan had fundamentally no way to split his spiritual consciousness or leave a message to the person sleeping soundly in the inn.
It wasn’t until he’d broken a majority of the death traps and heard a voice outside the forbidden ground that he could just barely probe out a thing or two.
When he heard Wu Xingxue speaking with the Feng Sect people, Xiao Fuxuan was just in the middle of deflecting the last few bolts of mystic lightning. Hacking through the sea of fire with his long blade, he worked his flagrant brawn to release a boundless field of sword aura, clearing the over ten miles of crimson flame.
Waiting until not a spark of the blaze remained and the inauspicious site was rendered a plot of scorched earth—and then checking that there weren’t any more life-claiming death traps—he flung the dust from his sword and flew beside the entrance to the forbidden ground in a single pace.
Naturally, he hadn’t the time to see what else was in the forbidden ground, and was too preoccupied to go look after that shadowy temple, let alone figure out what this place was sealing.
He used the back of his hand to wipe away the smattering of ash that had spattered his jawbone, and was just returning the sword to sheath when he reached out to pull in the person outside.
